Casey and the Kidnappers
by SVH
Summary: When Sammy goes missing, who's going to save her?


The little park smelled like fresh-cut grass and hot asphalt, even though shadows were starting to set in over the mall parking lot. To tell the truth, I was starting to worry a little. I didn't mind waiting, but it had already been almost a half hour since the time we were supposed to meet, and Sammy was such a trouble magnet that anything could have happened.

Just then, a voice behind me startled me out of my thoughts. "Hi. Sorry I'm late."

I turned at the sound of the well-known sound, smiling automatically. "That's okay," I said, distracted, as usual, by Sammy's presence. I got a good look at her, since I never really knew when the next time I could would be. The sun was setting behind the mall, and the lemony yellow light seemed to make her glow as she checked her watch.

"And I thought I was getting better about being on time." She grinned self-consciously. "I guess not."

"Don't worry. I wasn't waiting that long. Anything you want to do?"

"Nah. Let's just hang out for a little while. What've you been up to lately?"

I talked a little, mostly about my dad's new girlfriend who, since she didn't happen to be related to mine, I didn't mind, and the end-of-year play we'd been practicing for at school. It opened next week, the week before school ended, which seemed like bad timing, but whatever. I even had a small lead, a really good part for a freshman. "It'd be great if you came to see it." I smiled at her. She answered noncommittally and asked me a random question about school.

I answered, but I could see she was distracted. She had her "deep concentration" look, and she didn't even seem notice that we'd stopped talking until I interrupted the silence with, "So, what's been going on with you lately? Catch any criminals?"

She blinked and smiled, coming gradually back to life. "Not recently, but I'm working on it." Her eyes clouded again. "It'd be a lot easier if I knew what was going on in the first place."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Sammy glanced around, then took my hand and pulled me away from the sidewalk to the nearly empty Santa Martina Mall parking lot. She was still glancing around when we stopped at the curb.

"Sammy, what's up with you?" She was glancing around like she was checking for spies behind the skinny trees. "Are you okay?"

"Sorry," she said, finally looking me in the eye. "I've just been kind of paranoid lately…it feels like he's always a step ahead of me and right behind me at the same time, watching me, you know?"

"Not really," I admitted with a nervous laugh. "Who's watching you?" Did she have a stalker or something? It was probably only a matter of time.

"Well, not really watching me." Sammy started to pace up and down the curb. "It only feels like it. Which is impossible, because I've been the one watching him. All day. You know where he went? The library! And the city council office. I don't even know what he's doing, and I'm following him. Something's not right, but I can't prove anything."

She started pacing faster and faster. I grabbed her shoulders to make her hold still. "Sammy, Sammy, slow down. I don't have a clue what you're talking about, remember? Why don't you sit down and explain."

We both sat on the curb, and she started talking. "Do you remember where we found the condor that one time?"

I grinned. "How could I forget?"

"How about this one: do you know where we get our water from?"

That one threw me. "Um, rivers?" I guessed. "Like, water rights?"

"Yeah, partly. But in the spring, water from melting snow comes off the mountains. And it turns out that they collect it from natural channels that formed on those mountains, in a little reservoir at the base. They purify the snowmelt there so that we can use it in our homes."

"Sammy, what does any of this have to do with following some guy around?"

She took a deep breath. "His company is kind of…leading the movement to build a pipeline to move the snowmelt instead of letting it run down the mountain naturally. There's one big channel there that runs right into the reservoir, and ever since the city was founded that's where the water has come from."

"Wait, wait whose company are we talking about, here?"

"It's called Hastings & Sutton Pharmaceuticals. They own a big chain of pharmacies around here. The guy I was following today is one of the co-founders of the company, Marcus Hastings. He went somewhere else today, too. He had lunch with the owner of a big steel company, one that would probably get the contract to build the pipeline if they decided to go through with it. Here's the weird thing I can see where a steel company would be interested in building a big pipe, but I can't figure out why a pharmacy chain would get involved. It doesn't make much sense."

I shrugged. "Maybe they just like getting involved in the community."

"Maybe." Sammy frowned, and I could see that she was considering it. "But I don't think so. See, his excuse is that he thinks it would help keep the water cleaner, since then it would be contained in the pipe instead of running down the mountain and getting mixed in with all the dirt and bugs and things. And then the health of the general population would be improved, and stuff like that. And I could believe that, but here's the thing " she scooted a little closer to me, lowering her voice. "They started changing things after those guys got involved. Now they want to spend millions of dollars moving the reservoir around and stuff, all because they want to keep the dirt out of the water, supposedly. Which is silly, because they already purify it. And I thought something was strange. So I talked to Zachariah Sutton's mom, because I went to his house and she lives there too, and she said "

"Hold on, Sammy. Who's this Zachariah guy?"

"Oh, yeah. He's the other guy who owns the pharmacy company."

"And he lives with his _mom_?"

"Right. And I was talking to her, and she said that he'd been acting kind of strange a few weeks ago, because he hates to even go out in public, and he took a few of the people from the council and some other company owners out to dinner a few times. I think he might have been bribing them or something. See, I'm pretty sure I know exactly who's behind the whole thing, but I just have no idea _why_. That's why I've been following Hastings. I thought I would get some more clues, but everything was just a confirmation of everything I already knew."

She paused for breath. My head was spinning, trying to take in all this seemingly irrelevant information.

"Sammy, that's nice and everything, but…well, why do you even care?" I smiled at her. "I thought wasting resources was just something the government does. It's not like you can fix it. Not until you're president or something, anyway." Which I was pretty sure she would be, someday, because anyone that amazing definitely deserved to be.

"Well, normally I _wouldn't_ really care, but the money to build all this? The millions of dollars I mentioned? It's coming out of next year's education funds. They're going to have to cut tons of extracurricular programs to get the money for the building project. And it's not right to take the money away from the schools that could really use it right now, and use it to build something totally unnecessary."

"I see your point," I admitted, giving up. Obviously there was no way she was going to let something potentially dangerous go when she thought someone was being wronged. Might as well be the supportive boyfriend, even though I was worried. "So what are you going to do?"

All the worry melted from her face, replaced by a look of pure determination. Fists clenched, jaw set, eyes focused, she stood. "If I can prove that there's something shady going on, we might have a chance of fixing everything, and then the schools won't have to make any cuts. The problem is that the city council will make their decision in just a few days."

I stood up, too. "Well, no matter what happens, I'm sure you'll find a way to make everything better. Do you still have some time before you need to be home? I have a while. We could go walk around for a little while. What do you think?"

I looked down at her. Her eyes were wide and shining in what little light was left after our discussion, and the corners of her mouth were creeping up until she was smiling so wide that I started to worry a little. There was no way that she was this excited about my curfew. "Um, Sammy? You okay?"

She didn't seem to have heard me. Suddenly, her face feel, and all the blood drained from her face. "I have to go," she whispered. "I'll see you next week."

"What's wrong?" I caught her hands again as she turned away. She didn't look so good.

"Nothing. I'm fine. But I have to go now. See you Thursday."

"Well…all right." I leaned in, putting my arms around her, and kissed her on the lips, just for a second, before stepping back and letting her go. "Thursday. I'll call you, okay?"

All the color flooded back to her face, but she was biting back a smile. "Okay. Bye." Still blushing like crazy from the kiss was she ever going to get used to that? she turned and took off running. I watched her for a second, then collapsed on the curb again, a little exhausted from trying to keep up with her. She was way too smart for me. Still, I was glad for the chance to talk to her, see her, hear about all the things going on in her life. It was nice.

I didn't realize until later that that night could have been the last time I would ever get the chance.


End file.
